Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, 3 October 2007

Coaches' playbooks shouldn't include paddling students

Then, school trustees refused to let the boy's father publicly
discuss school discipline policy.

At first, I didn't pay much attention to a family's complaint
about a Springtown Middle School football coach.

Austin Carpenter, 12, told KXAS/Channel 5 that the coach
thought he was wearing another player's shorts and gave him one
swat with a paddle on Sept. 7. Austin says he had on the right
shorts. We don't know the coach's side.

For a minute, I thought -- no big deal. Under Texas law, any
teacher can paddle unless the local district has a rule against
it.

But some of the top football coaches in Texas say they don't
do it anymore.

"I can't even think of a coach anywhere who still
paddles," said Mesquite Skeeters coach Steve Halpin,
president of the Texas High School Coaches Association.

"It's not part of discipline anymore," he said.
"I've been the head coach here for 13 years, and I've never
done it. I've never seen the need for it. And I've never felt the
desire to do it."

"I've been hearing people on the radio and in
Springtown," he said. "They try to justify a grown-up
bruising a 12-year-old boy with a paddle. To me, there is no
justification."

He said he didn't call reporters and hasn't called a lawyer.
He just wants the Springtown policy changed to require a parent's
consent before paddling.

That's what he says he wanted to tell the school board on
Sept. 24.

Carpenter signed up days in advance, plenty of time for his
topic to be listed on the agenda. Trustees can always discuss a
policy -- although never an employee by name -- under Texas open
meetings law.

Carpenter said specifically that he wanted to change the
policy, not criticize the coach.

But Superintendent Lonnie Seipp said the father was
discouraged from speaking because he also wanted to discuss his
son's discipline and injuries, and administrators are still
reviewing the case.

"It's not a change in policy," Seipp said. "Our
athletic director just doesn't want any coaches swatting kids. If
somebody wants to talk about changing the policy, then come on
down and let's talk about the policy."

Muskogee Phoenix, Oklahoma, 13 October 2007

Some seek alternative to school corporal punishment

A new principal and an increase in corporal punishment at
Braggs Public Schools has some parents and students discussing
alternatives.

The Braggs Student Council is proposing a discipline policy
that must meet administrative approval.

A parent of two students at Braggs Public Schools, Candy C.
Wike, said she is upset about two swats her sixth-grade son
received in September that she said resulted in extensive
bruising.

Braggs Superintendent Harry L. Atkins said Friday he could not
verify anything about bruising in the Wike case. The new school
principal, L.D. Boatright, 61, had gone to a ballgame at another
school and was not available for comment.

Boatright said earlier that corporal punishment brings great
results. And while officials in several other area schools
aren't convinced, Atkins is.

"I promise you, this has been one of the best school
years I've had in the time I've been here," Atkins
said. "We finally have some discipline."

Vince Wike said Boatright told him his son received swats
because he didn't do his homework assignment for the second
day in a row.

A student discipline report from Braggs Elementary School
states Wike's son "had numerous chances to turn in
theme paper and failed to do so."

Meanwhile, Vince Wike and Atkins have come to an agreement on
punishment for Wike's son. It doesn't include swats,
Wike said.

"We don't spank our children — and we
don't want them to," Wike said.

He said Boatright told him he wasn't going to take the
time to call the parents before swatting a student. Atkins was in
agreement.

At Braggs, parents are requested to fill out discipline
information forms, Atkins said. The parents must sign whether the
school may or may not use corporal punishment as a form of
discipline, which appears to be a common practice.

"These (permission forms) have to be filled out every
year at enrollment time," Wike said.

The only such forms a secretary at the school could find in
the Wike file were for 2004 and Sept. 17 of this year, after the
spanking incident.

The student council is discussing alternatives to spanking
unless other discipline measures fail, school officials said.

Boatright said the student report should be submitted next
week. He also said he and the superintendent will discuss the
suggested policy and the next week submit their proposal to the
board of education.

The Wikes' daughter, Breanna Wike, was a senior at
Braggs, senior class president, student body president and editor
of the school paper until Thursday, when she changed schools
because of transportation problems.

She has done some research on the subject of corporal
punishment since her brother's paddling.

"The student body is working real hard to come up with
some better (discipline) rules," she said Friday.

Most of the students involved in proposing new rules
don't like the fact parents aren't called before
spankings are given, she said.

One thing the students wanted to see changed dealt with
discipline rules on the school buses, she said. An example, minor
infractions shouldn't result in getting kicked off the bus
for nine weeks, she said.

"Parents go to work — that's why their children
ride the bus," she said. "They (students guilty of a
minor infraction of the rules) could be made to sit in the front
seat with a monitor on their first offense."

The students are suggesting having to do custodial duty on the
bus and other punishments, as well. They are proposing a third
offense should be suspension from school for 9 weeks, Breanna
Wike said.

She submitted a list to the Phoenix she had compiled of some
of the Braggs students who told her of spankings received at
school until about six weeks ago. It reflects one student was
spanked 19 times during the first four weeks of school. She said
his spankings were for different infractions at different times.

Boatright said the student may have told other students he got
spanked 19 times, but it was more like four or five times.

The list reflects two second-graders were among those
receiving swats.

Muskogee Phoenix, Oklahoma, 13 October 2007

Spanking may not make the grade

Many area schools have halted
corporal punishment while some schools use it as a means of
discipline upon request of students or their parents.

Muskogee Public Schools put a
moratorium on corporal punishment after a spanking incident last
school year.

"I just question the validity in
the use of a physical punishment on kids," said Muskogee
Superintendent Mike Garde. "I think there are better
strategies we can use to teach kids better behavior."

Garde said an incident at an
elementary school last year in which a student was bruised
triggered the decision to halt spanking. The parents of the bruised child had
wanted the child to be swatted for a school infraction. But the
child moved as the paddle hit him, causing the bruising, Garde
said.

Parents of the injured student had
requested corporal punishment instead of other discipline, Garde
said.

A student at Tahlequah can get a swat
only if the student requests it and the parent agrees, according
to Tahlequah Vice Principal Gary Ferguson.

"Some students request it
because they work after school or participate in basketball,
football or another sport and don't want to miss
practice," Ferguson said.

And even if the student requests the
swats instead of after-school suspension, such a request is only
allowed twice per school year, Ferguson said.

Garde said he has never believed a
student should receive a spanking for academic reasons.

"Our responsibilities as
educators is to teach kids how to behave," Garde said.
"There needs to be a system in place that allows kids to
make mistakes and learn from them."

Warner Public Schools hasn't
dispensed corporal punishment for seven years — since
Superintendent Monte Madewell took over the helm. Warner
doesn't have a policy against using corporal punishment, he
said.

"We just don't use
it," Madewell said. "Our principal just doesn't
think we should beat children, and I kind of agree with him,
although sometimes we sure would like to reconsider,"
Madewell said, chuckling.

As far as swatting some students and
not others, depending on parental wishes, puts children in an
awkward situation, Madewell said. "That's an
inconsistency," he said.

Biloxi Sun-Herald, Mississippi, 28 October 2007

Sparing the rod is the trend

More than half of the school districts in South Mississippi
have policies allowing students to be paddled for bad behavior,
but most educators here say the practice is used sparingly, if at
all.

Of the 16 districts in the six southern counties, nine have
policies allowing corporal punishment; seven districts forbid it.

The Gulfport School District, for example, allowed corporal
punishment years ago, but the district formed a committee in the
early 1990s to look at the policy, and members decided to ban the
practice.

"There was just too much liability," said Glen East,
who worked for the district then and now is superintendent.
"The committee decided there were much better ways to
discipline children. But every year we get a parent or two who
wants to know why we don't paddle children."

During the 2004-05 school year, eight percent of students in
Mississippi schools were paddled, the highest percentage in the
nation, according to statistics from the Center for Effective
Discipline, based in Ohio.

Mississippi is one of 21 states that allows corporal
punishment; however, each district decides whether it wants to
use that form of discipline.

Nadine Block, executive director for the Center for Effective
Discipline, believes eventually the practice will be banned in
all states.

"It comes down to public acceptance of the practice, and
it's more accepted in the South," she said. "Whenever
you bring up banning it, that's when people speak up loudly about
it. Many superintendents just wish it would quietly go
away."

Educators in the Harrison County School District are allowed
to use corporal punishment, but there are rules. The principal
must approve it and it can't be done in the classroom. Students
are taken to the office and there must be a witness.

"You have people who don't want you to touch their child,
and there are people who want you to (use corporal
punishment)," Superintendent Henry Arledge said. "We
really don't have many principals who will do corporal punishment
because there is an attorney on every corner waiting to sue
schools. My guess is that it's not used very often."

If a child attends a school that allows corporal punishment
but parents don't want it used, they can give a letter to the
school at the beginning of the year, and that child won't be
paddled.

Block said research shows paddling students doesn't decrease
school shootings or violence, but many people believe it does and
that's why they favor the practice.

"We can't say corporal punishment is causing these
problems, but it doesn't help them either," she said.

Most schools use time out, demerits, detention and both
in-school and out-of-school suspensions. A student whose behavior
becomes too problematic can be sent to the alternative school.

Robert Hirsch, superintendent in Ocean Springs, said
individual students respond to different types of discipline,
including corporal punishment.

"I personally don't object to it philosophically,"
he said. "But I'm very cautious about using corporal
punishment. I don't think it should be used if the parents don't
want it. It's not a magic form of punishment.

"I'm in favor of it being used sparingly," he added.
"Across the country, it's gone that way because of liability
and legal issues and the chance of abuse."

Corporal punishment by state

Mississippi leads the states that allow corporal punishment in
the number of students hit. In the 2004-05 school year, 272,028
students across the country were paddled at school, but this is a
drop of nearly 10 percent from the early 1980s. Following is a
list of the top 10 states for number of students paddled during
the 2004-05 school year:

State

No. of students hit

Percent of total students

Mississippi

40,692

8.01

Arkansas

36,957

7.25

Alabama

36,130

4.85

Tennessee

33,353

3.38

Oklahoma

12,715

2.04

Louisiana

14,165

1.95

Georgia

19,826

Texas

50,489

1.17

Missouri

4,371

0.48

Kentucky

2,825

0.43

- CENTER FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE

Corporal punishment

Nine of the 16 school districts in South Mississippi allow
corporal punishment:

Allowed: Biloxi, George County, Harrison
County, Jackson County, Long Beach, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula,
Poplarville and Stone County.

Not allowed: Bay-Waveland, Gulfport, Hancock
County, Moss Point, Pass Christian, Pearl River County and
Picayune.